Bottle-closure.



PATENTED MAR. 22,1904."

F. W. H. CLAY.-

BOTTLE CLOSURE.

APPLIOATION FILED APR. 1a, 1903.

1T0 MODEL.

UNIT D STATES FRANCIS W. H. CLAY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

BOTTLE-CLOSURE. l

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 755,275, dated March22, 1904. Application filed Aprill3,-1903. Serial No. 152,319. N mod l-lTo all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FRANCIS W. H. CLAY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Pitts: burg, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented acertain new and useful Bottle-Closure, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to the means for hermetically sealing or stoppingthe mouths of bottles, jars and other like vessels; its primary objectis to do away with the necessity irf such devices of any packing havingelasticity or resiliency; other objects are to avoid the use of rubber,cork, or other expensive or injurious material in contact with thecontained liquid, to provide a stopper which by its own resiliency.maintains the necessary pressure to make a perfect seal, and can bereadily put in place and easily removed to open the bottle. Anotherobject is to provide an eflicient-form of stopper-disk for thesepurposes. which will hereinafter appear, I attain by means of the deviceillustrated in preferred form in the accompanying drawings forming apart hereof, in which- Figures 1 and 2 are sections of a jar and of oneform of my closure in place therein, the first figure showing thestopper placed loosely in position and the second figure showing thesame when buckled inward to make the seal.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 are sections of a bottle head and another form of mystopper in place therein, respectively showing the same in looseposition, then as closed to seal the bottle, and last in positionassumed in opening by thrusting the stopper inward.

Figures 6 and 7 are plan views of the stopper of Figure 3, beforebuckling, and after buckling, respectively. Figure 8 is a plan of adifferent form of stopper disk, before e pansion. K

Figure 9 is another form of the stoppe .which may be used.

Figure 10 is a diagram showing the action of the metal of the disk inbuckling inward and catching under the lip of the bottleneck to inducethe required pressure on the seat.

In all bottle stopping devices at present known to me the necessarypressure for the sealing is induced directly by the-elasticity Theseobjects and other advantages Patented IVlIarch 22, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE. I

of the packing used, the latter being either rubber, which is simplyresilient, or cork, which is both elastic and has the property ofswelling when wet. Also the pressure induced on the elastic packing'isgenerally applied in a direction radial to the neck of the bottle. Thislatter action is objectionable because it frequently causes fracture ofthe glass and because it is a delicate and difiicult task for machineryto put the stopper in place and bend the metal used. And there isserious objection to the use of rubber for packing because it spoilsbeer and many other liquids in ashort time, and objection to corkbecause it only'makes a tight seal when wet and therefore requires acertain position of the bottle, and also because it is expensive,difiicult to cut and very irregular in quality and texture. Bothmaterials, moreover, rapidly deteriorate, and otherwise cause leakage.Besides these draw-backs, all practicable devices for stopping bottles,other than simple corks, require special and expensive machinery toplace the stoppers in place; and the removal of the stoppers, whenrequired to be opened by the user, is always difficult and disagreeable.

In order to overcome all the above disadvantages I use the devicesshown. Theolosure illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 is designed moreparticularly for use on fruit or milk cans and is made so that it can beused over and over. The disk 6' is corrugated to make the actioneasierpre ferably in the form of Fig. 1. The jar A is made with aninwardly projecting lip d and has a circumferential ridge 6 as shown.The disk 6 has also an annular rib f which comes about opposite to therib "or ridge 6. The disk is of a size to nicely fit in the mouth of thejar, and may be placed first on a ring of some packing, h, which comesbetween the two ribs named. The disk then being forced inward andbuckled, the outer edge of the disk, by revolving about the rib b,expands and catches under the lip d in the position shown in Figure 2,when the resiliency of the metal of the disk maintains a pressure on thepacking in (which thus does not need to be elastic), and seals thevessel between the disk and the rib b. The disk may be made of tin orany other material which is resilient; the outer rim 9 should be splitat intervals down to the rib f, or may be cut out so as to leave merelya series of lips as shown in Figure 9.

In Figures 3, 4 and 5 I have shown a bottle neck and head, and the disktherein. In this case I prefer to make the annular rib or seat 6 with aflat or slightly concaved surface and place therein a little wax orparaffin, lb. (Of course if it is desired I may use a packing of paper,or even rubber or cork could be used if there were any occasion for it;but I have shown a mere coat of wax for making a tight joint because Iwish to emphasize the fact that the elasticity of the packing itself isnot at all depended on to make the seal.) The disk being placed as inFigure 3, the center is depressed, as by a tool as indicated in dottedlines in Figure 4, and'as it is buckled inward the elasticity of themetal of the disk brings about a thrust upward against the lip 61 of thebottle neck and the reactionary thrust downward on the rib 6 seats thelatter tightly thereon. From Figure 10 it will be plain that thelever-like motionof the inner portion of the disk, 0, about the rib t,causes the edge of the disk, 9, to move outward and catch under the lipd. This movement is amplified by the flattening of the curve of thedepressed metal in the rib f of the disk. The sealing wax it makes theclosure perfect by filling any irregularities in the form of the ribs.As a rule, I think paper would be the cheapest material to use in thisplace.

The use of the part of the disk outside the rib f, being only to inducethe reaction of the disk from the lip d on the rib 6, it will generallybe cheapest to make the disk of the form of Figure 9, with a few arms 9.The form of the rib f causes it to be stiff, and therefore it does notneed to be held down at every point.

The device as shown in Figures 1 and 2 may be opened by hand, by simplypulling out the crown of the disk by the eye is, buckling the disk backinto its original position. The device as used on beer bottles, forinstance, will need to be quite stifi in order to withstand the insidepressure; it is opened either by inserting a sharp tool, or, as Iprefer, by pushing it inward as by the tool T as indicated in Figure 5,or with the thumb, until the lip d releases the resilient edges, g, ofthe disk, when the stopper may be simply lifted out of place. In themanufacture of the disks 6 it is generally best to form the annular ribf by spinning, which increases the resiliency of the metal at this pointso that the necessary elasticity of the flange parts outside of it isgained without making the inner portions of the disk too stiff for easyaction in buckling inward.

' The thickness of the metal of the disk will, of

course, be regulated by the pressure required in the reaction againstthe rib b to withstand the pressure of the contents of the bottle. Thecorrugated form of the disk shown in Figure 7 increases the ease withwhich the stopper may be put into place, without diminishing theresistance offered to the inside pressure. The design may be otherwisevaried for this purpose.

It will be seen that when the stopper is put in place and bent into theform shown in Figure 4 the resiliency of the metal disk itself willinduce a constant live pressure upon the rib b and on the packingthereon, so that no amount of shrinkage of the packing will weaken theseal, the condition of the packing being of no consequence and noelasticity of the packing being at all necessary. The extreme ease andconvenience of the operation of opening the stopper will be at onceapparent; and the cheapness and simplicity of the device also areevident. The placing of the stopper requires no special machine orimplements.

I am aware of those constructions in which a metal disk is madenon-resilient and expanded against an elastic packing in order to holdthe latter in place by the permanent form of the disk; but thedeterioration of the packing, or its shrinking, in such devices,releases the pressure and causes leakage. The device shown herein isdesigned to avoid this difficulty by providing for all the pressure inthe disk itself, and not the packing, and the allowance of possible playin the position of the disk at all times, if the packing expands orcontracts.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what Iclaim, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is the following:

1. The combination with a vessel provided with two seating surfaces ofdifferent diameter, of a concave resilient disk buckled inward fromnormal position and resting in contact with said two surfaces byleverage stress induced by the buckling movement.

2. The combination, of avessel having with- I in its mouth an annularrib and an inwardly projecting ledge, and a resilient disk concavedupward and having an expansible flange to cooperate with the ledge ofthe vessel mouth to induce a thrust between the disk and the said ribwhen the disk is buckled inward.

3. In a bottle stopping device a concave disk having an annular bearingsurface lying in a plane without the plane of the edge of the disk,whereby indenting the concave body of the disk alters the distance apartof the planes of the edge and of the said bearing surface, for thepurpose described.

4:. The combination with a vessel formed with a mouth having an annularbearing ledge and an annular bearing rib, of a concaved disk ofresilient material adapted to be buckled or reversed in its concavityfor the purpose specified.

5. A vessel having a mouth provided with two annular bearing surfacestherein of different diameters, combined with a concaved disk ofresilient material adapted to induce pressure on the said two bearingsurfaces by reversing the concavity of the disk, substantially asdescribed.

6. A bottle stopper comprising a resilient disk having a concavedcenter, an annular rib, and a divided annular flange outside the saidrib, for the purpose described.

7 The combination with a resilient stopper disk, of a vessel having amouth with a seating rim and an abutment ledge of different diameterfrom, but lying in nearly the same Elaine as, the said rim, for thepurpose speci- 8. A bottle closure comprising in combination the bottlemouth having two bearing surfaces, and a resilient concave disk, thedisk being adapted to engage its rim and catch under one of saidsurfaces by buckling inward and to rest by leverage stress on theotherof said surfaces. 7

9. A vessel having a mouth provided with two annular bearing surfacesfor vertical pressure, being of diiferent diameters, combined with aconcaved disk adapted to fit in the said mouth and rest on one of thesaid bearing surfaces and to expand its edges to engage the other of thebearing surfaces, when buckled in or reversed in its concavity,substantially as described.

10. A bottle stopping device comprising disk of general concaved formhaving split or divided edges and having annular corrugations,substantially as described.

11. A bottle having a mouth provided with an annular rib therein, anannular retaining lip outside of the said rib, combined with a concaveddisk having an annular ridge corresponding to the said rib of the bottleand a split outside flange whose edge lies in a different plane fromthat of the said ridge, to engage the said retaining lip of the bottlewhen the disk is buckled inward.

In testimonywhereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence ofthe two subscribed witnesses.

FRANCIS W. H. CLAY. Witnesses:

PAUD SYNNESTVEDT, CHAS. H. EBERT.

